Collar stays (also commonly known as “collar stiffeners,” “collar bones,” “collar sticks,” “collar knuckles,” or “collar tabs”) are dress shirt accessories. Collar stays are usually smooth, rigid strips of various materials such as metal or plastic, rounded at one end and pointed at the other, inserted into specially made pockets on the underside of a shirt collar to stabilize the collar's points. The primary function of the collar stay is to stiffen the collar of a fabric garment, increasing rigidity and preventing the points (corners) from curling, in order to affect a neater and/or more freshly pressed look. Collar stays also help maintain the spread (distance between the points) of a shirt collar, help prevent the shirt collar from slipping outside of a jacket lapel, and help hide the loop of a necktie.
Historically, stays were sewn, pinned, or inserted into and around collars of men's and women's garments. The advent of plastic in the mid-1920s allowed stays to be more effectively sewn permanently inside of the collar. This continues today, but they can also be permanently fused to the collar fabric or affixed using adhesive. Throughout the mid-20th century, removable stays remained popular, incorporating metal wire and sheet material, often integrating springs and pins. During this period, flat, insertable stays made of plastic were common, sometimes with V- and multi-branched shapes.
Preferably, collar stays should be removable and removed from shirts before dry cleaning or pressing because press-ironing a shirt with the collar stays in place is likely to damage both the shirt and the collar stay, especially if the stay is made of a plastic material that has a tendency to melt. Additionally, pressing a shirt with the collar stays in place results in an impression of the collar stay in the fabric of the collar. Further, it is desirable to have a collar stay that stays in place without the need for pins that pierce and may damage the shirt. Unfortunately, the process of removing the collar stays for cleaning or pressing often results in lost collar stays or collar stays that are mismatched and do not fit the shirt collar. It is therefore also desirable to have an adjustable or extendable collar stay that will fit any shirt collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,494,185 discloses an improved shirt collar stiffener of the type adapted to be worn under the turned down portion of the collar and on the point thereof to stretch the cloth and thereby improve the appearance of the collar and to prevent the collar from curling or becoming wrinkled and unkempt. The stiffener of the invention is easily attached or detached and may be varied in length to fit properly under collars of different shapes and depths.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,024 discloses a stay to be disposed within the pocket of a collar for maintaining that collar in properly supported condition by engaging with the ends of the stay the base of the pocket and an inner collar zone surface adjacent the conventional line of fold of the collar, said stay including in combination a pair of flexible members in the form of strips disposed in superimposed relationship, means extending from one strip and slidably engaging and overlapping the other strip to maintain those strips in substantial axial alignment, and one of said strips being under tension transversely of its body to draw surfaces of the strips into frictional engagement with each other, said tension being created incident to said one strip being formed of somewhat resilient material and being longitudinally creased intermediate its side edges, the other strip being substantially flat, whereby said strips will resist relative axial shifting.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved collar stay that is removable, extendable to fit any size shirt collar, shaped to fit into a collar pocket, relatively flat, simple to manufacture, and that does not containing any pins or sharp ends that may pierce and damage the shirt.